Consumers have increasingly become “cashless” and are becoming more inclined to use credit cards and other non-cash vehicles to pay for goods and services. Furthermore, consumers have grown accustomed to mobile technologies and are often able to pay for goods and services through various applications on their smart phones, tablets, or other devices. Additionally, consumers and merchants alike expect more from their technology, including technology that learns their habits and configurations and conforms accordingly.
While it may often be more convenient to make electronic payments than cash payments, it is often more difficult to split expenses between group members with electronic payments. For example, when a group visits a restaurant, each member may want to pay for only his or her portion of the bill. While some restaurants may split the check between multiple credit cards, others may be reluctant to do so especially in view of the increasing fees to the merchant for accepting multiple cards for one bill. Furthermore, while restaurants may be willing to split a bill evenly, they typically will not allocate expenses so that each person pays for his or her own purchases and will not offer separate checks for very large groups of customers. Thus, it is difficult for individuals to adhere to a budget when participating in a large group purchase.
Another problem arises due to lack of electronically provided information for record keeping, especially when consumers intend to split expenses, since detailed information is required to accurately divide the expenses. While businesses may issue paper receipts, when consumers make purchases with a credit card, the electronic records of the purchase include a POS transaction record and a credit card record derived from the POS transaction record. Frequently, because the receipt is a paper receipt, it remains disjointed from and is never linked with any electronic purchase information. When purchases are made online, the receipt from the merchant may be delivered electronically. However, when purchases are made in person, receipts are typically traditional paper receipts. In either case, the receipt may include information that is not readily available through POS records or through credit card records. For example, the receipt may include specific information related to goods or services purchased, whereas other records may merely include general information such as a total amount charged, merchant identifying information.
Furthermore, customers are then required to retain the receipt so that they can produce it upon returning a purchased item or upon exercising a warranty, or simply in order to keep an accurate record of expenses. Paper receipts can easily be lost or accidentally thrown away. Furthermore, with the availability of electronic record keeping, the distribution of paper receipts creates unnecessary waste.
To overcome the difficulties explained above with respect to lost information on paper receipts and the lack of consolidation with electronic receipts, systems have been proposed for capturing receipt images, transforming the image information to data, and storing and otherwise operating on the transformed data. For example, co-pending application Ser. No. 13/165,929, filed on Jun. 22, 2011, and Ser. No. 13/795,147, filed on Mar. 12, 2013, both of which are incorporated herein by reference, disclose methods for capturing the receipt data and integrating it with existing expense management systems.
Accordingly, due to the above-mentioned deficiencies with currently existing systems, a solution is needed for incorporating recently developed data capture technologies to reduce burdens associated with paper receipts and improving expense management capabilities based on the information contained in the paper receipts. A solution is needed for minimizing dependence on paper receipts and facilitating expense management by purchasers. Furthermore, a solution is needed that is capable of implementing a captured receipt image for expediting and facilitating splitting of expenses between customers. A solution is also needed for quickly and efficiently allowing a party member to communicate with a merchant.